Child porn offenders had record of assaults

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Two men with convictions for child sex offences are the first in
NSW to plead guilty to charges laid in Australia's biggest
investigation into child pornography.

A computer analyst, Joseph Moldovan, of Bondi Junction, and a
former teacher, Dennis Edward Lester, of Koolewong, on the Central
Coast, both 52, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child
pornography.

Police said Moldovan had "thousands" of images of children
younger than 10 - "including toddlers and babies engaging in sexual
activities with adults, as well as posing in glamour-style photos
and various sexual positions" - on his home computer.

Documents tendered to Waverley Local Court revealed that he used
a credit card to access three websites, from which he downloaded
copies of pornographic images of children. Police also found
"hundreds of movies ... containing children clearly under the age
of 10 engaging in sexual activities with adults and other
children".

Moldovan, who was arrested at home on September 25, did not
appear in court but his lawyer entered a guilty plea on his behalf
to two counts of possession of child pornography. His computer hard
drive and more than 400 CDs were seized.

Lester, who appeared in Gosford Local Court yesterday, had his
computer hard drive, 15 videos and 27 CDs seized. On them were
images from the internet of children aged 12 and 13 engaged in
sexual acts.

Moldovan was found guilty and sentenced to 16 months by Judge
Brian Gallen in 1991 in the Sydney District Court for six counts of
indecent assault, including four involving a child under 10.

Lester is registered with Brisbane Water Police as a known child
sex offender after being sentenced to 15 months of periodic
detention in 1989 on 11 counts of indecent assault on a child.

Their guilty pleas follow the first under Operation Auxin of a
34-year-old Perth man, Andrew James Wilson-Brown, who confessed to
similar offences last week. Police have seized 2 million
pornographic images of children in 400 raids across Australia.

Yesterday, Registrar Aldo Loprete ordered that Moldovan be
psychiatrically assessed and the matter has been adjourned to
November 16. Lester will be sentenced on November 15.

Meanwhile, a teacher who secretly videotaped girl students
undressing for photo shoots at a western Sydney Christian school,
where he taught and was also a youth pastor, was granted $10,000
bail yesterday.